Aqua-Soft ForumsI've been giving object bar many tries, but it's just not usable. I really want a decent Mac bar but all the ones I've tried are either laggy/slow or don't integrate the start menu along with the mac bar well, or make it a pain to use the taskbar, or have some things that dont even work... they're just there for eye candy... Anyway, what do you guys think about object bar? is my search for a good mac bar with decent functionality and good integration with windows, the start menu, and the taskbar worthless?
Does anyone actually find Objectbar USABLE??
Don't know about finding it usable, but it is definitely the best of the Bars out there- the rest are still in development and very low on features.
So far, your search is worthless 
. Give it a year or so, though, and maybe we'll get some decent competition going.
-nightcrawler1089
yes......................................................i do
At first I was a hardcore customizer, using as many different apps as I could, a nice but often buggy collage of: AveDesk, the YzApps, most of the stardock apps (including Object bar), rainlendar, some samurize here and there, nexplorer and many others. Then it got to the point when I realized how much resources these combined apps take, not to mention their respective flaws/bugs. Looking for a matching skin for each took too much effort, in the end I purged all those apps and left only the most essential: AveDesk1.2 beta, Yztoolbar, and a skinned trillian pro.
[rant] I think that sometimes people have those types apps on their desk simply to show them off, "OOHH look at me, I have 12 apps that all match in a *insert style here* way" they take their screenshots, post it on a thread, then complain about how their computers are too slow,not to mention the myriad of bugs that are hinder their computing experience. [/rant]
In short, to answer your question, No I don't find ObjectBar usable, it is just another app that brings customizer closer to that mac-look without actually buying one. It's too slow, unfamiliar, doesn't recognize some app's menus etc.
In short, to answer your question, No I don't find ObjectBar usable, it is just another app that brings customizer closer to that mac-look without actually buying one. It's too slow, unfamiliar, doesn't recognize some app's menus etc.
well said. i dont like objectbar at all.
That's exactly what's keeping me from installing and trying to use Objectbar :|
I find that for me at least it us useable and I don't run any program that causes problems for me. However I hardly use any widgets except for avedesk drives because I find they are just a novelty for me and not something I can't do without, but that's something else entirely. Some people have more luck with programs than others I guess. Also what some person might find acceptible another may not (I'm talking little things here).
However I do agree that some things like for example in objectbar where put in there just for looks, which is the fault of the ones who constructed the bars. I myself have been going through the entries in mine and weeding out or changing entries that are not working sometimes with a little creativity.
Mostly what I use is a shell with bblean (with all visual stuff disabled to handle behind the scenes stuff), objectdock+ and objectbar, IconX for icons and avedesk for drives.
Now... hacking the menubar out of a program just so that it will have the look is something that doesn't make sense to me.
Well...having just paid my £10 or so I have to say yes...most usable feature for me is having the iTunes controllers on the bar, but I have to agree with mubach...all this eyecandy will slow you down somewhat. My desk is widgetastic at the moment, but I'm sure I will tire of all the clutter and go back to something pure and simple...but hey! It's fun!
My opinion: this thing is EXTREMELY usable!
I don't need any of hotkeys managers, launch panels (except dock, of course 
) and some other apps.
Many thanks Stardock for this great app!
That made me think of something. On OSX the eye candy is integrated into the OS so the how much it slows down the system is built in so people accept it but others complain that OSX is laggy, slow even on faster hardware. When you load up an image it's always more than none and this goes for MS Styles as well (4-13mb ram useage).Well...having just paid my £10 or so I have to say yes...most usable feature for me is having the iTunes controllers on the bar, but I have to agree with mubach...all this eyecandy will slow you down somewhat. My desk is widgetastic at the moment, but I'm sure I will tire of all the clutter and go back to something pure and simple...but hey! It's fun!
I myself found a good combination of applications that gives me the look I want but without very much slowdown. When I show a lot of applications in my screenshots it is to show how many different skins I made that match my theme but I hardly ever run all those at once. I mostly run the above mentioned combination that I mentioned plus WB and WindowFX.
If it doesn't slow down my system much it should not slow down someone elses computer that I know probably for sure has a lot higher specs. Think about this however, we have only begun. It will get worse once more longhornish stuff comes in that have even more transparencies like for the titlebar, etc. and especially when the actual OS comes out. Especially the first versions because even OSX was very very slow when it first came out.
Hats off as well to the guys making us these bars (crni, peteross and others). They are producing works of art imo and objectbar does offer a lot of functionality once you get to know it.
MAybe it's just the way I have things set up, or my computer is retarded, but my average ram usage is maybe only about 10mb higher with all my apps than it is is on a username with the barebones xp.
I use Avedesk 1.1, Y'zdock, Rainlendar, and Objectbar. IMO every one of those makes my computer about 100 times more useful AND cool looking at the same time. Since this thread is about objectbar, I'll only elaborate on that.
I find object bar very useful for a few reasons.
1- Removes the menu bar from 99% of apps, the others that it can't hide usually have an option in the program itself to hide (firefox for example).
This is great because it makes the window smaller. Granted not that much, but it add's up if you have a few windows open. It's also aesthetically pleasing if you hardly use the menu bar.
2- Allows you to customize your own menus and dropdown toolbars. I know the windows taskbar can do this, but this allows you to have added features and customize it quite a bit more.
3- Personally, I hate the taskbar. Is it functional? yeah. But if you have alot windows open it gets cluttered. yes, windows can group, but at that point it shows a drop down menu which is no diferent than a taskbar menu on objectbar. I'm an alt-tab person, so I hardly use the taskbar. And if you like the taskbar, it is easy to add to objectbar.
4- gets rid of the start menu. If you prefer a minimal(yet customizable) start menu, objectbar does this great. Yeah, you can pretty much acheive the same thing through windows, but I find it easier and more customizable than windows.
5- It just looks good. Lol
6 - I don't find object bar laggy at all, in fact it claims to be (and I believe is) faster than the windows taskbar. It lacks menu animations (to my knowledge) so it can look kind of jumpy.
Basically I find it as a very aesthetically pleasing taskbar replacement, with added functionality.
Sorry for any typos, I'm quite a sloppy typist.
OB v2 is out in November as beta and is a huge improvement... so hold out for that
OB v2 is out in November as beta and is a huge improvement... so hold out for that
Heh... I'll be on my iMac at this time. Sad... :slant:
/Sad? What am I saying... idiot/
what will be new in v2?
My goodness, man. Get in there and change stuff around and get it to do whatever you want. ObjectBar is completely customizable and will do just about anything. I've been using it a long time and it functions for me exactly like the bar in OS X with some XP additions to it that allows me to access everything and beyond what the XP taskbar could ever give me. This program is not eyecandy. It is fully functional. Play with the settings. Use right click on any menu item to get in and change what that item does or how it acts. No other program will allow you to do this much or allow you to emulate the OS X bar so closely.I've been giving object bar many tries, but it's just not usable. I really want a decent Mac bar but all the ones I've tried are either laggy/slow or don't integrate the start menu along with the mac bar well, or make it a pain to use the taskbar, or have some things that dont even work... they're just there for eye candy... Anyway, what do you guys think about object bar? is my search for a good mac bar with decent functionality and good integration with windows, the start menu, and the taskbar worthless?
For those who complain that objectBar is too slow or whatever.... it's time to upgrade your machine or something. I have not once noticed any performance issues running ObjectBar, either in speed or memory. It works, and it blows away the XP taskbar. Period.
OB v2 is out in November as beta and is a huge improvement... so hold out for that
Wishlist OB v2:
- faster respons
- less hogging
- Not creating an additional taskbar (and hiding the windows taskbar).
but 'skinning' the OB-sections on top of the windows taskbar
- The ability to move the menubar of the active window to the taskbar
Has better acceleration than a Ferrarri. 0-80% CPU usage in a second....
With an AMD 64 3200...
usually have an option in the program itself to hide (firefox for example).
How do you get an option in Firefox to hide the Menubar? I looked everywhere, but nada.....I'm using Firefox 0.9.3 ...
How do you get an option in Firefox to hide the Menubar? I looked everywhere, but nada.....I'm using Firefox 0.9.3 ...
have a look here http://www.stylesuites.com/articles.php?action=show&id=1
I don't 'use' Objectbar as such; it's there for appearance's sake mainly. It's the only program that makes Windows look like a Mac. The clock is handy though
What would be nice is if you could tell Objectbar what name to use for a particular program, to display in the bar just to the right of the apple symbol. ie. if you're running Firefox, you could choose to have it say Safari. Currently if you have the option turned on to use the active window's title text, it will display the entire title of the website you're visiting instead - which is messy and not like on a Mac. I don't know if a future version will allow this option :confused:
Oh also - if the title text is long, and then you run a program with a shorter title, there is a big gap betwen the title and the menu options! You have to go into Objectbar's settings to fix it. There are certainly a few rough edges like that.
OB v2 is out in November as beta and is a huge improvement... so hold out for that
Is the changelog known yet?
What improvement should I think of?
Good for screenshot maybe, but you don't find OB is not slow? wow~
Simply people uses it because there is no better bar to emulate mac.....
Let's admit it,,....it doesn't hurt too much......(Upgrade computer for one lousy bar
when you don't find any other application without lag or slowness?)
I don't thing~ so...... 
How can Objectbar be slow when all it does is sit at the top of the screen and look pretty 
When I'm using the web and I have my PC set up to look like a Mac, my user experience is exactly the same down to the last pixel as it would be on a real Mac. Except this way is free